Container fire on the Yantian Express (voyage 108E)

We regret to inform you that on 3 January, a fire broke out in one container on the deck of the vessel Yantian Express (voyage 108E) on her way from Colombo to Halifax and spread to additional containers. Due to bad weather conditions, the fire has not been successfully contained yet and has significantly increased in intensity at times.

Hapag-Lloyd signed a salvage contract with Salvage Company Smit under Lloyd’s open form to ensure that the utmost will be done to safe the vessel and the cargo.

Despite the ongoing firefighting support from the salvage tug “Smit Nicobar”, the fire has unfortunately not been extinguished yet.
For this reason, a decision was made to evacuate the crew. The complete crew is unharmed and was safely transferred to the “Smit Nicobar” on 5 and 6 January.

Further developments of the situation on the Yantian Express are being monitored closely, and the firefighting efforts with the salvage tug are ongoing.
At this time, it is not possible to make a precise estimate of any damage to Yantian Express or its cargo.

At present, the vessel is approximately 800 nautical miles off the coast of Canada (Nova Scotia).

We regret the inconvenience caused because of this situation.

We will keep you informed as soon as further information will be available.